Description
Finding a Home is a hopeful testament to the immigrant experience as well as anyone who has felt displacement. It was written during a global pandemic and immense social tension in the United States. This composition blends English and Haitian Creole to connect different cultures.
In collaboration with the Boston Children’s Chorus, Sydney Guillaume and Kevin Brian Ramsden have come together to create a work that helps us re-imagine a home. The piece takes you on a journey that validates the anguish from feeling out of place, and also celebrates the homes we have found and the ones we have yet to discover.
English and Haitian Creole text:
Our drum has lost its beat, Tanbou nou pèdi kadans,
There’s displacement under our feet. Nou santi nou depeyize.
As we walk along these foreign lands,
We will find a home again.
A home isn’t confined to a place.
It’s a community, a warm embrace.
Our memories will never die, Pa gen souvni k’ap janm pèdi,
If we seek the rhythms of our past. Si nou chèche tanbou zansèt nou yo.
It’s in our journey we find a home, Se nan chimen lavi nou jwenn lakay.
Embracing change and sharing lives.
Let the tears of anguish run dry,
Our life is here, our home is here.
Listen to the rhythms of our feet,
Our drum has found its beat. Tanbou nou reprann kadans.
Da-da-dumm, Ta-ka-doum,
We found a home again. We found a home.
Click Here for complete text and IPA
Recording
Finding a Home – recording 1:
Boston Children’s Chorus
World Premiere (virtual)
May 30, 2021
Perusal Score
Performance Video
Practice Tracks
